Caravaggioin Rome

A tour around thesights of Rome to dis-cover the Masterpiecesof Michelangelo Merisida Caravaggio.

1. BORGHESE GALLERY

2. LUDOVISI LODGE

3. CONVENT AND CHURCH

OF SANTA MARIA DELLA

CONCEZIONE

4. BARBERINI PALACE

5. DORIA PAMPHILJ

GALLERY

6. THE CAPITOLINE ART

GALLERY

7. CHURCH OF SAN LUIGI

DEI FRANCESI

8. CHURCH OF

SANT’AGOSTINO

9. CHURCH OF SANTA

MARIA DEL POPOLO

10. VATICAN ART GALLERY

11. CORSINI GALLERY

turismo

Roma for youCollection of information by the Roma City Council

Published by Cosmofilm s.p.a. - Elio de Rosa, EditorEditorial director: Paolo GaleottiText: Sofia BarchiesiEditor: Emanuela BosiLayout: Antonio D’AlessandroGraphics: Marco C. MastrolorenziTranslations by: Protos Translations & Communication (Naples - Italy)

Photos:Reverenda Fabbrica di San Pietro Archives: 29, 30, 31, 32Roma Sacra Archives: 10, 11, 16, 17, 18, 19, 21, 22, 25Artistic and Historical Treasures Service of Roma (SBAS): 6, 7, 8, 9, 15, 20Maria Teresa Natali: 24Claudia Primangeli/Soriani f.c.v:Francesca Sinagra/Soriani f.c.v.:Paolo Soriani: 12, 13, 14, 20, 26, 27, 28, 33

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A series of specialistic guides aim to prolong one’s

stay in Rome; a suggestion for people who have

“a few extra” days and desire to deepen the

knowledge of our city.

Carefully studied itineraries to accompany the visitor in the

discovery of the great patrimony of the Renaissance in Ro-

me through the testimonies of great artists such as Cara-

vaggio, Raffaello, Michelangelo.

Walks through baroque art, to admire the splendid architec-

tures by Bernini and Borromini.

Advice for everyone, alike tourists and Romans, in order to

quietly discover and enjoy the testimonies of ages that

played a major part in constructing the extraordinary pre-

sent image of our city.

Tourism OfficeMunicipality of Rome

The M

ap

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1. BORGHESE GALLERY

2. LUDOVISI LODGE

3. MONASTERY AND CHURCH OF SANTA

MARIA DELLA CONCEZIONE

4. BARBERINI PALACE

5. DORIA PAMPHILJ GALLERY

6. THE CAPITOLINE ART GALLERY

7. CHURCH OF SAN LUIGI DEI FRANCESI

8. CHURCH OF SANT’AGOSTINO

9. CHURCH OF SANTA

MARIA DEL

POPOLO

10. VATICAN ART GALLERY

11. CORSINI GALLERY

T

San PietroCastel

Sant’Angelo

Piazza delRisorgimento

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The Map

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The River Tib

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Piazzadel Popolo

PiazzaNavona

PiazzaVenezia

Villa Borghese

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BorgheseGallery

The Villa was builtfor Cardinal ScipioneBorghese, nephew of

Pope Paul V. It was con-ceived as a centre of enter-tainment and cultural en-joyment by the architectFlaminio Ponzio at the be-ginning of the 17th century.Later decorated by Giovan-ni Vasanzio, the interior wascompletely re-arranged byAntonio Asprucci in 1770.The decorations of the sa-loons belonging to thatperiod were completelyrestored during the courseof the last work of preser-vation completed in 1997.The villa holds the splendidfamily collection started byScipione Borghese, connoisseur of bothclassic and modern art.

Photo: Paolo Soriani

J.W. Baur, View of Villa Borghese (1636)

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The Borghese Gallery enjoys the recordof having the most number of Cara-vaggio’s works. No other museum in

the world holds six canvasses by the famousLombard Maestro and up to the Napoleonicperiod there were double the number ofwhich, what is more, demonstrated a wholelife dedicated to painting: from a young ageup to the last stage of his stormy life.

The Young Girl with basket of fruitand The Sick Bacchus are the works of ayoung man. They come from the seizure ofthe Cavalier d’Arpino’s collection. The latterwas a well-established painter but had themisfortune to come up against the greedy

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Young girl with basket of fruit (photo SBAS)

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Scipione Borghese. In 1607, the painter

from Arpino was im-prisoned for reasons thatare still not clear. Cardi-nal Borghese, with theexcuse of a collection ofarquebuses owned bythe unfortunate artist,blackmailed him in or-der to gain possessionof his outstanding col-lection of paintings.Cavalier d’Arpino was,in fact, released afterhaving left the collec-tion at the ApostolicChamber from which, itseems, it passed as a pa-pal donation to ScipioneBorghese. The Young

Girl with basket of fruit, dated between1593 and 1595, interpreted, in a new way,

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St. Jerome (photo SBAS)

The Sick Bacchus (photo SBAS)

Lombard, Venetian, Tuscan and Flemishideas. There are many naturalistic detailsthat attract the observer to the minute detailof the fruit in the basket held by the girl witha masculine face.

In the Sick Bacchus, painted between1593 and 1595, Caravaggio, only a shortwhile before leaving the Hospital of the Con-

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Madonna dei Palafrenieri (photo SBAS)

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solazione - where hehad been admittedafter being kickedby a horse - wantedto portray a votiveoffering, through thelivid lips and the pal-lid flesh, for havingescaped death.

The Madonna deiPalafrenieri, paint-ed between Novem-ber 1605 and March1606, was commis-sioned by the Arch-Confraternity of Pa-pal Grooms for theiraltar in the Basilicaof St. Peter’s. It wasrefused by the first

clients because of the lack of decorum and ofthe crude realism of the figures of the Virgin,of the Child and of St. Anne, or perhaps, onthe suggestion of Paolo V Borghese, whothus allowed his nephew a quick acquisitionof the painting. The altar-piece shows thetheme of the Immaculate Conception.

The St. Jerome was probably done di-rectly for cardinal Scipione Borghese be-tween 1605 and 1606 as a mark of gratitudeof the artist who had been helped out oftrouble with the Law. It could well be the firstpainting by Caravaggio to enter the Borghesecollection.

Caravaggio painted David with the headof Goliath between 1609 and 1610, duringhis second stay in Naples, and probably sentit to cardinal Scipione Borghese to obtainfavour in view of a return to Rome, the cityhe had run away from after a seriousepisode with the Law. Caravaggio depicted

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San Giovannino (photo SBAS)

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the cut off head ofGoliath, that is, of thesinner; the painteradmitted his guiltand asked for grace.

The event with theSan Giovannino isperhaps tied to the lasthours of life of theartist. It mustn’t be for-gotten that the paint-ing was aboard theship on which Cara-vaggio left Naples toreturn to Rome, takingwith him the work togive to the cardinal.The Baptist was one ofCaravaggio’s favouritesubjects.

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Galleria Borghese, piazzale del Museo Borghese, 5 - 00197 RomaPhone 06 32.810 • 199 75.75.10 (register tickets) Fax 0632651329 • www.galleriaborghese.it • info@galleriaborghese.it.

Times of opening: every day except Mondays, 1st January and the25th December from 9 am to 7 pm. The ticket-office closedbefore 1 hour.

Entrance: complete e 8,50, reduced e 5,25, free for under 18’s andover 65’s; e 2,00 for booking; e 5,00 guided tours.

Services: The museum has special access facilities for handicappedpeople.

The museum, with entrance very two hours, is by limited numbers;for bookings Tel 06 32810. There is a guided tour with art historiansfor each time slot. For bookings for guided tours in foreign languagesand groups of a maximum of 25 people, Phone 06 8555952.

David with the Head of Goliath (photo SBAS)

LudovisiLodge

The lodge, in required atthe Administration of thePrince Boncompagni Lu-

dovisi, fax 06 42010745, price e 5,16 visitable in appointmentFriday 11.00 am and 12.00 am issituated along Via Lombardia, 46is - together with the palace thepresent home of the Embassy ofthe United States of America -the only remaining part of thesplendid Ludovisi Villa, built bycardinal Ludovico on the HortiSallustiani in the first half of the1600’s and completely destroyedat the end of the last century. The16th century building is in the

form of a cross; projections were added toeach wing in 1858. The Lodge is also calleddell’Aurora from the masterpiece by Guerci-no who also painted the Allegories of day andnight, in tempera on the wall. The rooms al-so have splendid decorations done by Agosti-no Tassi, Paul Brill and Domenichino.

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According to old information byBellori, biographer of many 17thcentury artists, Caravaggio paint-

ed the gods Jupiter, Neptune andPluto, sons of Chronos, Lord of the Uni-verse in oil on the wall, here, in thesmall vault of the lavatory of the Alche-my laboratory. The work has been datedto the end of the last decade of the1500’s, when the lodge was owned bycardinal Francesco Maria Del Monte, avery influential person and interested in,among other things, Alchemy. The sunis in the centre and above it is Jupiterwith an eagle. To the sides, below, arethe foreshortened figures of Neptunewith trident and sea-horse with webbedfeet, and Pluto with Cerberus.

Jupiter, Neptune and Pluto(photo Boncompagni Ludovisi)

Jupiter, Neptune and Pluto (de-tail) (photo Boncompagni Ludovisi)

Monastery and Church ofSanta Maria della Concezione

The Church and monastery of the Capu-chins, the name with which the twobuildings are better known, rise at

the beginning of Via Veneto, immediatelyafter Piazza Barberini. The church (thefirst in Rome to be dedicated to the Im-maculate Conception of Mary) was built atthe beginning of the 1600’s by cardinal An-tonio Barberini and designed by AntonioCasoni. With almost all built by the Capu-chin brothers, the building has a singlenave and five side chapels, the altars areall made of wood, to recall the poverty ofthe Franciscans. It holds famous works aswell as the celebrated cemetery below,united to the large monastery, the provinc-ial Curia of the order.

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St. Francis meditating

Church of Santa Maria della Concezione, Via Veneto, 2700187 Rome • Phone 06 4871185

Times of opening: every day from 7 am to 12 am and from 3 pm to7 pm.

BarberiniPalace

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Built in the park of Cardinal Pio daCarpi, the palace was planned byCarlo Maderno after ownership

passed to Francesco Barberini in 1625.Planned as a residence for the papal fami-ly, the building was provided with splen-did gardens, making a true and propertown house. The later intervention byBernini saw the construction of the centralsaloon (decorated with the famous frescoby Pietro da Cortona), of the loggia withporch below and the great staircase withsquared stairwell. The design of the win-dows of the central part and the plan forthe great winding staircase can be attribut-ed to Francesco Borromini. Bought by theState in 1949, the palace holds the Na-tional Gallery of Classic Art that, formed in1895 and recently inaugurated, collectsworks dating from the 12th to the 18thCenturies, belonging to noble families(Torlonia, Barberini, Chigi, Sciarra, etc.)

(photo Paolo Soriani)

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The Decapitation ofHolofernes, dated between1595 and 1600, coming from

the Coppi collection, can be identi-fied with the Judith painted by Ca-ravaggio for the banker, OttavianoCosta. The work, closely tied to thetraditionally important Biblical sto-ry of the triumph of good over evil,of virtue over vice, is noted for theseverity of the scene. The decisiveaction of the heroine, who appearscold and determined; with a slightnote of reaction on her face, as on

the other hand the ancient servant, with staringeyes, contrast with Holofernes’ cry, his contract-ed body stretched out on the bed in the lastseconds of life. The light emphasises the horrifyingwound from which a violent jet of blood spurts.The representation of a non-Hebrew Holofernes,the opposite of the Bible story, but completelyaware of his end, is new in Caravaggio. The famedsensuality of Judith was originally highlighted bythe artist with the naked breast, later concealed by

the bodice. An admirer, and alsomodel, of Caravaggio’s, GirolamaGiustiniani, can be recognised in theJudith.

The Narcissus is a work datingback to 1599 - 1600. The debatedattribution to Caravaggio has nowbeen recognised once and for allafter the restoration. The theme ofNarcissus who is looking at his re-flection in the water, was con-sidered symbolic of the moral exhor-tation “know thyself”.

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National Gallery of Classic Art, via Barberini, 18• 00184 RomaPhone 06 4814591 • Fax 06 32651329 • info@galleriaborgh-ese.it www.galleriaborghese.it/barberini/it

Times of opening: from tuesday to sunday from 8.30 am to 7 pm exceptMondays, 1st January and 25th December from 9 am to 7 pm.

Entrance: complete e 5,00, reduced e 2,50, free of charge for under 18’sand over 65’s.

Services: The museum has special access facilities for handicappedpeople.

For bookings of guided tours with art historians in foreign languages andfor groups of a maximum of 25 people, Phone 06 8555952 (e 80 in Ital-ian, e 104 in a foreign language)

Decapitation of Holofernes (photo SBAS)

Narcissus (photo SBAS)

Doria PamphiljGallery

The gallery is situated in the splen-did palace facing onto the Piazzadel Collegio Romano. Rising on

an earlier centre dating back to the 16thcentury, the building was erected in theearly 1600’s by the Aldobrandini family.It passed as a gift to the young Olympia,widow of her first husband Paolo Borghe-se. It entered the Pamphilj family afterthe second wedding of the noblewomanto Camillo, nepotic cardinal of his uncle,Innocent X. From the second half of thecentury, the palace was enlarged accord-ing to the design by Antonio Del Grande,who also took charge of the later work atthe end of the 1600’s. In 1731, GabrieleValvassori modernised the building,constructing the famous façade in Viadel Corso.

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17(photo Paolo Soriani)

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The Rest on the Flight into Egypt,a work dating back to 1595, sum-marises to perfection the period of

development of the artist; the Lombard experi-ence and the influence of the Venetianschool, particularly evident in the softnessof the landscape on the right. A novelty inthis portrayal of a sacred theme is the rear-view of an angel-musician, in the centre ofthe painting, playing a violin and followingthe score held up by St. Joseph. On thescore is part of the cantus of the motetQuam pulchra es et quam decora by theFlemish, Noël Baulduin (1519), inspired bythe Song of Songs in the Old Testamentwhere it is the poetic dialogue betweenbride and groom, and refers to the presenceof the newly-weds, both true, Joseph andMary, and symbolical, the Virgin and Christ.

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Rest on the Flight into Egypt (photo Doria Pamphilj)

The client is not known for cer-tainty, but some scholars haverecently claimed him to be car-dinal Pietro Aldobrandini.

The Maddalena is depictedasleep like Mary in the Rest, ina very similar pose. The richdress she is wearing is stillcourtly, but the jewellery lieson the floor. Her vigilant sleep,on a chair, is a theme also saidto be inspired by the Song ofSongs and therefore interpret-ed as amorous languor, a loveof God. The figure of the ex-sin-ner is lighted by Caravaggiowith a light that, besides beinga constructive element of figureand scene, is significative ofthe grace that bursts into thedarkness of the sin. The paint-ing has been dated to between1593 and 1597.

The St. John the Baptist isa signed and contemporaneouscopy of the canvass commis-sioned by Ciriaco Mattei, heldin the Campidoglio.

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Doria Pamphilj Gallery, Piazza del Collegio Romano, 200186 Rome • Phone 06 6797323 • Fax 06 6780939 www.doriapamphili.it • arti.rm@doriapamphilj.itTimes of opening: every day except Thursdays, the 25th December, the 1st

January, Easter, the 1st May the 15th August and the 1th Novem-ber from 10 am to 5 pm.

Entrance: complete e 8,00; reduced for the elderly and students, andgroups; private apartments is restoration; A service of au-dio-guide in Italian, English and French is included in the en-trance ticket. The Gallery is open for the whole of August,except for the 15th.

Services: The gallery has special access facilities for handicapped people.

Maddalena (photo Doria Pamphilj)

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St. John the Baptist(photo Doria Pamphilj)

The CapitolineArt Gallery

W as founded by Benedict XIV in1748 and contains, for themost part, paintings (from the

Middle Ages to the 1700’s) belonging tothe Sacchetti and Pio di Savoia families.The Gallery is in the Capitoline Museums(which have the oldest public collectionsnot only in Rome but also in the world),housed in the Campidoglio and in thetwo palaces designed by Michelangelo.Notably enriched thanks to the arrival ofworks through purchases, inheritancesand donations, the Capitoline Art Galleryhas been in the care of the Rome CityCouncil since 1847.

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20(Photo Paolo Soriani)

The Good Luck (there is anotherversion in the Louvre) was painted forcardinal Del Monte and can be dated

to 1594; contemporary to the Maddalena(Doria Pamphilj) and to the Narcissus (Bar-berini Palace), with whom the male figurehas the damask fabric, visibleunder the jacket, in common. Agypsy is portrayed with theelegant young man. Whilereading his hand to predict thefuture, she is removing hisring. The subject is an allegoryon the idea of deceit, or amoralistic invitation to notlose oneself in vanity, alludingto the richness of the youngman’s clothes, to not give in tothe devil’s temptations, astuteand thieving, and of the flesh,aspect almost summarised, ac-cording to tradition, by the in-triguing figure of the gypsy.

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Good luck (detail)(photo Rome City Council)

Good luck (photo Rome City Council)

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The St. Johnthe Baptist wasan almost forgot-ten painting untilit was rediscov-ered with clamourin 1953 in theMayor’s Office. Itwas probably thepainting that Cara-vaggio was paidfor by the noble-man, Ciriaco Mat-tei in 1602 andwhich was com-missioned in rela-tion to the name ofhis first born son,Giovanni Battista,who inherited it.

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St. John the Baptist (photo Rome City Council)

Capitoline Art Gallery • Piazza del Campidoglio • 00186 RomaPhone 06 67102475 • Fax 06 6785488 • pren. 06 39967800www.museicapitolini.org • info.museicapitolini@comune.roma.it

Times of opening: every day except Mondays, 25th December, 1st Ja-nuary and 1st May from 9 am to 8 pm.

Entrance: complete e 6,20; free of charge for under 18’s and over 65’s;singol prenotation e 1,50, school e 6,00, groups e 25,00;e 3,50 guided tours.

San Luigidei Francesi

Begun in 1518 for the future ClementVII, the church was completed atthe end of the same century by

Domenico Fontana on the design by Gia-como Della Porta. The building, nationalchurch of the French, rises at the back ofPiazza Navona, next to the Senate House.The ample façade in travertine stone isdecorated with figures of French Saintsand of Charlemagne. The interior withthree naves was arranged during thecourse of the 18th century. Besides thefamous St. Matthew’s chapel, the churchhouses Domenichino’s masterpiece; thefresco of St. Cecilia in the second chapelon the right (1616 - 17).

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In the Contarelli chapel, there are theStories of St. Matthew. From 1565,the chapel belonged to the French eccle-

siastic, Mathieu Cointrel, who dedicated it tohis patron saint with the intention of startingthe decorations; the work, however, beganonly after his death, on the commission ofthe executor of his will, Virgilio Crescenzi. In1591, Cavalier d’Arpino was given the com-mission of frescoing the chapel, but eight

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The Martyrdom of St. Matthew (photo Roma Sacra)

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years later still lacked the twoside paintings which were en-trusted to Caravaggio. The painter completed them be-tween July 1599 and July 1600.On the left is the Vocation of St.Matthew and on the right is theMartyrdom of St. Matthew.The realism of the portrayal em-phasises the harshness of thekilling of the saint. The artist in-terprets with originality, the trendof the style of the Counter-re-form, which insisted on the cele-bration of martyred saints. Afterhaving renounced the Sculptors’group of Jacob Cobaert (in thechurch of the Trinità dei Pellegri-ni), the clergyman of San Luigientrusted Caravaggio with thefirst version of the altar-piecewith St. Matthew and the An-gel, of doubtful date, waveringbetween 1593 and 1602. Thework, quickly rejected because ofthe reduced size and for reasonsof decorum, was acquired by theMarquis, Vincenzo Giustiniani(destroyed in Berlin during thelast conflict) and substituted bythe one which can now be seenon the altar, with the saint turnedtowards the angel and leaningwith his legs on the stool precari-ously balanced on the steps.

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Church of San Luigi dei Francesi, Piazza San Luigi dei Francesi, 500186 Rome • Phone 06 688271 • Fax 06 68827228Times of opening: every day except Thursday afternoons, from 8.30

am to 12.30 am and from 3.30 pm to 7 pm.Services: The church has special access facilities for handicapped

people.

The vocation of St. Matthew (detail)(photo Roma Sacra)

St. Matthew and the Angel(photo Roma Sacra)

The church ofSant’Agostino

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Was erected in 1420, enlarged atthe end of the same century andtransformed by Luigi Vanvitelli

halfway through the 1700’s. The monu-mental steps at the entrance connect thechurch to the city. The three nave interiorholds many famous works, besides thefamous Caravaggio and Raphael: the“Madonna del Parto” by Jacopo Sanso-vino (1521), the decoration of the righttransept by Guercino and the tomb ofSanta Monica di Isaia by Pisa. Next dooris the Angelica Library, the first publicone in the city, founded at the beginningof the 1600’s and set in the buildingbegun by Francesco Borromini.

(Photo Roma Sacra)

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The Madonna dei Pelle-grini is on the altar ofthe first chapel on the

left, it belonged to the Caval-letti family, and can be datedto between 1603 and 1606.Two wretched figures of pil-grims, the man with muddyfeet and the woman with adirty bonnet on her head,kneel in front of the Virgin andChild. The details, so crudelyreal, provoke criticism and de-rision from the public.

It is an interpretation of theMadonna di Loreto: The Virginwelcomes two travellers lean-ing on the jamb of the door ofher humble but noblehouse, a symbol of thechurch. The light illumi-nating the Virgin andChild indicates thegrace that also illumi-nates the two pilgrimswho haven’t lost theway of faith. Accordingto Baglione (1642), theirportrayal had causeda lively reaction, notnecessarily negative asis usually thought.

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Church of Sant’Agostino, Via della Scrofa, 8000186 Rome • Phone 06 68801562 • Fax 06 68215193 • 066833547 • agostiniani@infinito.itTimes of opening: every day from 7.40am to 11am and from 4pm to 7.30pmServices: The church does not have special access facilities for

handicapped people.

Madonna dei Pelligrini(photo Roma Sacra)

Madonna dei Pelligrini (detail)(photo Roma Sacra)

Santa Mariadel Popolo

The church was founded on the siteof a small chapel built by PasqualeII at the expense of the Roman

people, the reason for the later name.Completely re-built halfway through the15th century by an unknown architect,the church was fitted out with a splendidchoir made by Donato Bramante at thebeginning of the 1500’s. The simplefaçade in travertine stone, erected on thewishes on Sextus IV della Rovere, was in-stalled by Gianlorenzo Bernini. The threenave interior has side chapels which holdsome exceptional works, among whichare the funeral monuments by AndreaSansovino, the frescoes by Pinturicchioand the precious fire-glazed stain-glasswindows, the only ones in Rome, byGuillaume de Marcillat.

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28 (Photo Roma Sacra)

The Cerasi chapel is to theleft of the high altar. Herewe can find two of the

main artists of the time together:the altar-piece is by AnnibaleCarracci, with the Assumption,while the two side paintingsportraying the Conversion ofSt. Paul and the Crucifixionof St. Peter are by Caravaggio.In the Conversion, dominated bythe figure of thehorse, Saul is on theground taken at themoment when thedivine light blindedhim on the road toDamascus. In theMartyrdom of St. Peterthe executioners areraising the cross on towhich the apostle isalready nailed.

The two canvassescurrently on site arethe second versionspainted by the sameartist after the firstpaintings on panel(one, The Conversionof St. Paul is in theOdescalchi collection)were rejected byTiberio Cerasi, clientof the decoration.

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Church of Santa Maria del Popolo, piazza del Popolo, 1200187 Roma • Phone 06 3610836 • Fax 06 3203155Times of opening: ferials 7 am to 12 am and from 4 pm to 7 pm

festives 8 am to 1.30 pm and from 4.30 pm to 7.30 pm Services: The museum does not have special access facilities for

handicapped people

The Crucifixion of St. Paul (Photo Roma Sacra)

The Conversion of St. Paul(Photo Roma Sacra)

The VaticanArt Gallery

The first nucleus of the VaticanPalaces was built halfway throughthe 15th century, after the popes,

the Avignonese Captivity at an end,decided to transfer their residencefrom the Lateran to the Vatican. Thefirst residence, of square design, had aquadrangular central courtyard (thecourtyard of the parrot) to which theother buildings were slowly added.The Vatican Museums; which, besidesthe art gallery, hold priceless works;were built from the 1700’s on, arrangingthe papal collections started in the Re-naissance period.

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30 (Photo Paolo Soriani)

The Deposi-tion ofC h r i s t ,

painted between1602 and 1604 wasoriginally housedin the church of St.Mary in Vallicella,headquarters ofthe Congregationof the Oratoriofounded by SanFilippo Neri. Here,it was placed onthe second altar ofthe right hand nave,in the chapel dedi-cated to the Pietà(where there is,now, a copy by theTyrolese painter,Michele Koeck), inrelation to the restof the still existing decoration of the chapel,glorifying the Holy Shroud. The client of thepainting was Girolamo Vittrici. The foreshortenedstone, besides being an important part of thecomposition, can be interpreted as “angularstone”, a metaphor for Christ himself.

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The Deposition of Christ (photo Musei Vaticani)

Vatican Museums, Viale Vaticano, 100 • 00165 RomaPhone 06 69884947 • 06 69884676 (guided tours)

Times of opening: from november to february: from monday to fri-day from 8.45 am to 12.20 am (1.45 pm); from march to oc-tober: fron monday to friday from 8.45 am to 3.20 pm (4.45pm); Every saturdays and the last sunday’s mounth from8.45 to 12.20 am (1.45 pm)

Entrance: complete e 12,00; under 14 years, schools and studentsup to 26 years e 8,00.

Services: The museums have special access facilities for handicapped people.

CorsiniGallery

Has its headquarters in the monumentalCorsini Palace, situated in Via della Lun-gara, opposite Villa Farnesina. The build-

ing rises on the site of the old Riario Palace ofthe early 1500’s, where the Queen Christina ofSweden also lived, who founded an academyfrom which came the Arcadia.Bought by the Corsini in 1736, the building was no-tably enlarged by Ferdinando Fuga, architect to thenoble Florentine family. The Accademia Nazionaledei Lincei also has its headquarters here, with animportant library. The collection records the tasteof cardinal Neri Corsini, nephew of Clement XII.The 18th century collection has the prize of havingremained mainly intact. The splendid park, alreadypart of the palace, from 1883 was used as home ofthe BotanicalGardens. It ex-tends towardsthe Janiculum.

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32 (Photo Paolo Soriani)

The St. John the Baptist in the desertcan be dated to the end of the Romanperiod (1606), because of the intense

and directional use of light. The painting isperhaps identifiable with that of identical sub-ject owned by the widow of Onorio Longhi,architect friend of the artist. The portrayal ofthe Baptist is one of Caravaggio’s favourites,which he did in many different versions, whomaybe identified himself with the surly char-acter of the saint, who left everything to re-treat into the desert.

The painting is recorded, in 1784, in thecollection of Bartolomeo Corsini in Florencewhere it probably arrived for the weddingbetween the noble and Maria Felice Colon-na-Barberini.

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Corsini Gallery, Via della Lungara, 10 - 00165 RomePhone 06 68802323Times of opening: every day except Mondays, the 25st December, 1st

January and 1st May from 8.30 am to 7.30 pm; July and Au-gust every day except Mondays from 8.30 am to 2 pm.

Entrance: complete e 4,00; reduced e 2,00 free of charge for under18’s and over over 65’s.

Services: The gallery has special access facilities for handicappedpeople.

For bookings of guided tours with art historians in foreign languagesand for groups of a maximum of 25 people, fax 06 8555952 (e 92,00)for studets of school e 2,58

St. John the Baptist in the Desert (photo SBAS)

His L

ife

The Life of the Artist

M ichelangelo Merisiwas born in Caravag-gio near Bergamo in

1571 of a family linked to abranch of the Sforza family,to the Colonna’s and to theBorromeo’s.

After a childhood spent be-tween Milan and Caravaggio,he entered, as an adolescentin 1584, the workshop of Si-mone Peterzano in Milanwhere he remained until1587 - 88; he returned to hishome town but in 1592 hewas already in Rome. Here,he began to go around withpeople in the artistic field. Bio-graphers of the 1600’s de-scribed the first artistic meet-ings of the young Michelan-gelo: Lorenzo Siciliano, An-tiveduto Gramatica, andabove all Cavalier d’Arpino,in whose workshop Caravag-gio was put to work “painting

flowers and fruit, beautifully imitated”. He left the workshop of themaestro and began to live a muddled life. He was admitted to theHospital of the Consolazione, maybe because of malaria - or becauseof being kicked by a horse. He often changed lodgings. During hiswanderings he found hospitality with Monsignor Pandolfo Pucci,where he wouldn’t have had an easy life because a salad served Ca-ravaggio “for starters, main course and sweet” (hence the nicknameof “Monsignor Salad” given to the prelate). In 1594 he appearedamong the employees of the influential and refined cardinal DelMonte, in whose house he stayed until 1600. Del Monte introducedhim to a refined and select public of Roman collectors: VincenzoGiustiniani, Ciriaco Mattei, the Barberini’s and the Massimo’s. Hepainted easel works, masterpieces such as: The Sick Bacchus andThe Young Girl with basket of fruit.

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MichelangeloMerisi da Caravaggio

David with the Head of Goliath (photo SBAS)

His Life

Then came his first publiccommission, the decorationof the Contarelli chapel in thechurch of San Luigi deiFrancesi.

Michelangelo often foundhimself in trouble with theLaw (brawls and violent argu-ments with soldiers andfunctionaries, labourers, fel-low painters and landlords).In 1605, he escaped to Genoaafter having wounded the scribe, Mariano Pasqualone to defendLena, one of his favourite models with whom he had a relationship.One particularly serious episode was the killing of Ranuccio Tomas-soni on the 25th May 1606, during a “ball” match; it forced Caravag-gio to run away. After taking refuge in the Colonna’s Latian estate, hewent to Naples where he painted works such as The Seven works ofMercy and The Madonna del Rosario.

Still a fugitive, because he could have been captured and executedanywhere, he went to Malta between 1607 and 1608, guest of theGrand Master of the Order of the Cavaliers of Malta, Alof de Wigna-court. Though when fate seemed to favour him, his painting becamegloomy: the backgrounds became darker and darker and the brush-strokes more rapid. The Beheading of the Baptist, for the Cathedralof St. John on Malta, is the only work signed by Caravaggio but in aparticularly dramatic way: the name is painted in red, with the bloodof the Baptist. It was accepted in the order of Malta as “cavalier ofgrace”, but a short while after, because of the crime committed inRome or for a new event, he was imprisoned. He escaped and wentto Sicily where he stayed for about a year. In October of 1609, he wasback in Naples. He was assaulted and seriously wounded in a tavern.He convalesced for a long time, but then he received notice of an im-minent pardon by the pope and embarked for Rome, but was stillpersecuted by his tragic destiny. He died during the voyage, in PortoErcole, on the 18th July 1610 for reasons which are still unknown.

The troubles of every type which happened to Caravaggio reveal,however, a complex and sensitive personality: it is not surprising,therefore, that in the Rome of the Counter-reform he had placed hispainting, so innovative, at the service of new religious ideals asthose supported by the Oratorians and Capuchins.

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The Sick Bacchus (photo SBAS)

The C

ounc

il

• Florence, The UffiziThe sacrifice of Isaac, The Head of Medusa, Bacchus

• London, The National GalleryThe Supper at Emmaus

• Lugano, von Thyssen collectionSt. Catherine of Alessandria

• Malta, St. John’s CathedralThe Beheading of the Baptist, St. Jerome

• Messina, National MuseumResurrection of Lazarus, The adoration of the shepherds

• Milan, Ambrosian Art GalleryBasket of fruit

• Naples, Church of Pio Monte della MisericordiaThe seven works of Mercy

• Palermo, Church of St. LawrenceNativity with St. Francis and St. Lawrence

• Paris, LouvreGood Luck, The Death of the Virgin

• Siracusa, Church of Santa LuciaThe burial of Santa Lucia

• Vienna, Kunsthistorisches MuseumMadonna del Rosario

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The main works of Caravaggioin the great museums andchurches of the world.